10 Facts You Were Not Knowing About The Sahara Desert

12:23 am May 19, 2018

vignesh

We all know for a fact that Sahara desert is the world’s largest desert. But what if we told you this isn’t entirely true, yes you heard it right, that position is held by Antartica. Just in case if this information leaves you baffled here’s more, Sahara desert is the largest hot desert in the world. As per some recent research published in the scientific journal, scientific advances, humans used to occupy the Sahara Desert nearly 8,000 years ago.
As on date, Sahara is one of the most difficult environments to survive on planet Earth. We bring to you these wonderful facts which will help in answering some of your questions you may have about the world's most famous and hot desert.

Humans vacated the Sahara long long back

With Sahara desert increasingly volatile and hostile for human habitants to survive, many of them vacated Sahara a long time ago.

To be precise, human habitation started leaving Sahara 8000 years ago.

Researchers used different techniques to determine climate conditions

The research team was able to determine the climatic conditions of a given period using ancient wax leaf.

A major reason for migration of population

Though it may seem like stating the obvious but researchers are still not pretty sure whether the drying desert was the sole reason for humans leaving the Sahara region.

Although, what is pretty clear is the fact that rainfall began to recede around the same time when humans started migrating elsewhere

The Sahara we now is 10 times dryer

According to a report generated from the University of Arizona, it came to light that Sahara Desert receives only one to four inches of rainfall per year.

That's approximately 10 times lesser rainfall than during its so called once upon a time "green period."

Marine deposits used for the Sahara study

Researchers at the University of Arizona used marine deposits from four different sites off the coast of West Africa instead of lake deposits for their study.

Prey hunters used to boss there

This area was once notoriously famous for being the shelter to the tribes of prey hunter-gatherers who fed off plants and animals in the region between 5,000-11,000 years ago.

People returned post the dry spell

Oddly enough people finally started coming back to the Sahara Desert after the dry period started.

However, there was a remarkable paradigm shift as instead of hunters we had cattle farmers who took control over the desert.

Cores helped in finding the real deal

The marine deposit base came from a distance of around 800 odd miles.

This helped in finding the ancient rainfall data of the "Green Sahara."

Biggest source of dust

Now this fact takes the icing on the cake, Sahara Desert is considered to be the biggest source of dust.

This is purely owing to lack of vegetation and rainfall.

Desert used to be green once

Some studies have uncovered the rainfall patterns in the Sahara Desert over the past 6,000 years.

The findings reveal that the Sahara went through a "green period" where the desert received over 10 times the amount of rain it does currently.